SOUTHERN HEMP, OR BEAR GRASS. 



437 



Great Britain ; also the stock on hand, 31st Dec., 

 and to which are added tlie stock on hand, Jau. 

 1st, expressed in 1000s of bales : 



1841. 1842. 1843. 1644. 



1,846 2,005 2,155 2,127 



Importation. — It will be seen (says the Cir- 

 cular,) that there is a decrease from the United 

 States of about 200,000 bags, and from Egrypt of 

 60,000 bags, whilst from the East Indies is ajj 



increase of 55,000 bags, and a trifle fi-om the Bra- 

 zils, which leaves, on the aggregate, a deficien- 

 cy of about 200,000 bags ; but the excess in the 

 stocks at the beginning of the year, made up 

 the aggregate supply fully to what it was in the 

 previous year. 



[The above is extracted from the Circular of Coll- 

 mau and Stolterfoght, dated Liverpool, 31st Januaiy, 

 1845.] [Columbia South Carolinian. 



SOUTHERN HEMP, OR BEAR GRASS. 



We find in the Tallahassee Floridian of the 

 15th (says the New-Orleans Bulletin) the follow- 

 ing letter from Gov. Call to Gov. Moseley, in 

 relation to the cultivation of Hemp from the 

 plant knoivn by the name of Bear Grass, and 

 indigenous to the Southern States. The Florid- 

 ian introduces the letter with some remarks on 

 the agricultural advantages and the products of 

 Florida from which we give a shq^t extract : 



'■ We have heretofore remarked that we believed 

 there was no counti'y under the sun where the hon- 

 est, industrious cultivator of the soil could obtain a 

 living with more ease and less labor than in Florida. 

 We are every day becorains; more and more con- 

 vinced of this fact. The salubrity and healthfulness 

 of ihe climate, the richness and fertility of the soil, 

 the variety of productions, and the ease with which 

 they can be cultivated, all prove this. Almost every 

 year we have a new article introduced in the culti- 

 vation, which has been nezlected or overlooked for 

 years past, in the all-absorbing mania for raising cot- 

 ton. In some parts of the Peninsula we can raise 

 most of the tropical fruits in perfection; in all parts 

 many of them : and in quantities, if the culture is 

 properly attended to, to render their production prof- 

 itable. With the people of Florida, then, there is no 

 necessity of contiuing themselves to one particular. 

 We have before noticed some of the most profitable 

 productions — cotton, sugar, tobacco, Sec. We have 

 this week a new aiticle to notice, which has hereto- 

 Ibre been neglected — the Bear Grass. We have been 

 inl'ormed by an intelligent merchant of St. Marks 

 that, a year or two since, he received and forwarded 

 cotton from a Geor^'ia planter, roped with Ihe rope 

 made on his own plantation from the Bear Grass ; 

 and that, but for the fact that it was not quite so well 

 manufactured, it would not have been distinguished 

 liom the regular Manilla." • 



Tallahassee, Nov. 8, 1845. 

 To his Excellency, Wm. D. Moselev, 



Governor of the .Slate of Florida : 

 Sir : I have the honor to present to your Ex- 

 cellency a specimen of the Florida Hemp, pro- 

 duced from the plant generally known by the 

 name of " Bear Grass." It abounds in Floriiia 

 in its native, uncultivated condition, and it is be- 

 lieved that it may be propagated to an indefinite 

 extent. Nothing feeds upon it, and it therefore 

 requires no enclosure. It grows in the forest 

 frequently to the hight of three or four feet, and, 

 no doubt, may be improved by cultivation. It 

 loses scarcely anything by the process of manu- 

 -the Hemp being about the same length 

 It is found indigenous in most of 

 ithern States, and, though being neglect- 

 unnoticed, from the successful results of 



experiments recently made, I feel assured it is 

 destined very soon to become one of the most 

 valuable staples of our country. In the present 

 depressed situation of the cotton market, ouing 

 to the superabundant production of that aiticle, 

 such a result is greatly to be desired. And if 

 my anticipations are realized, the Southern 

 Hemp will become more abundant and more 

 profitable than that of the North, and will con- 

 tribute but little less than cotton to the popula- 

 tion, wealth and power of the Southern .States. 



The resemblance of the Hemp of Florida, 

 both in its native condition and after its manu- 

 facture, to that of Manilla, induces a belief that 

 it is equal in value if not superior to that article, 

 and that the same process may be required for 

 its cultivation and pt'eparation for market. Al- 

 though I am well satisfied ^^■ith the result of the 

 experiments I have recently made for the latter 

 pui-pose, and am convinced that, \^ithout anj- 

 improvement whatever in the method I have 

 pursued, the labor of every hand engaged in its 

 production will be more than twice the value of 

 the .same amount of labor employed in a cotton 

 field, j'et it may be found, on inquiry in the 

 country where the Manilla Hemp has been pro- 

 duced for .so many years, that a much better plan 

 has been produced by long experience. Deem- 

 ing this a subject highly worthy of in(piiry, I 

 would respectfully suggest to your Excellency 

 the expediency (.shonld jou think favorably of 

 the proposition) of requesting of the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, through some of our 

 foreign Consuls, to obtain all the practicable in- 

 formation in regard to the cultivation and prepa- 

 ration of this valuable article of commerce. 



The experiments I have made have been as 

 simple and expeditious as tliey have been satis- 

 factory in their results. The leaves of the plants 

 have been plucked from the bud, around which 

 they cluster, tied up in convenient bundles, 

 boiled, and pounded, until the green bark and 

 soft vegetable matter is disengaged from the 

 strong fibres, when they are put in water, and 

 washed out with great ease. 



But the apparatus I have suggested, and in 

 which I have great confidence, (.sufficient to pre- 

 pare from two to three tons per day.) is a heavy 

 wooden wheel, to traverse a circular platform, 

 firmly constructed and covered with strong 

 plank. Tlie wheel to turn on a shaft. C3r\-ed in 

 the form of a screw. One end of the shaft con- 

 fined and turning on a pivot in the center of the 

 platform, which will cau.se the wheel in its rev- 

 olutions to traverse every part of the platform. 

 The action of the boiling water for twentv-five 



